PLUMAGE OF YOUNG BIRDS. 87 



VII. 



PLUMAGE OF YOUNG BIRDS. 



IT is surprising what odd and variegated costumes 

 are sometimes worn by the juvenile members 

 of the bird community. Frequently tlieir attire is 

 so different from that of their elders that even the 

 expert ornithologist may be sorely puzzled to deter- 

 mine the category to which they belong ; yet there 

 are usually some characteristic markings, however 

 obscure, by which their places in the avian system 

 may be fixed. As a rule, the plumage of young 

 birds is more striped and mottled than that of mature 

 specimens, Nature playing some odd pranks of color- 

 mixing in tiding a bird over from callow infancy to 

 full-fledged life. Fashion plates in the world of 

 bantlings would be of little account, as no fixed 

 patterns are followed. 



Some parts of the growing bird's plumage change 

 to the normal color sooner than others. I remem- 

 ber a young male indigo bird that I saw in October, 

 whose garb, just after fledging, must have been a 

 warm brown almost like that of the adult female ; 

 but now he had cast off a part of his infantile robes, 

 and put on in their stead the cerulean of his male 

 parent ; his tail, rump, and the base of his wings 



